Ditch Witch Zahn

Just read advertisment in landscape mag - DW for $19500 or so with regular bucket. Dont seem bad compared to used ones with 400 - 700 hours on them. I would go this route then and buy used attachments if any are to be found.

Just read advertisment in landscape mag - DW for $19500 or so with regular bucket. Dont seem bad compared to used ones with 400 - 700 hours on them. I would go this route then and buy used attachments if any are to be found.

I have looked - thing is - hours rake up - or tracks are bad, or beat up. There are a few DW out there as well. The more I have researched these things, with all yourh elp as well, the DW seems to me like the machine to get. I like toro, BC, machines as we have rented them along with the dw but I am getting the vid on here that dw may be the way to go??

How? The ground speed is exactly the same. The weight of the mt55 and dw650 is exactly the same. The Dw has a 650 roc and the mt55 has 550 roc. Dw has 13.5 gpm hydro flow and the bobcat has 12gpm flow.

How is a dw going to double productivity over a mt55? I can see it being slightly better, but as far as seeing an actual difference in the bottom line... I don't see it.

On paper the performance of a dw is 10% better than the mini skids. Reliability? Who knows.

The best roi would be buying the best used deal. I think I would rather spend 5-10k on a lower hour mini skid than 20k on a new dw.

I have looked - thing is - hours rake up - or tracks are bad, or beat up. There are a few DW out there as well. The more I have researched these things, with all yourh elp as well, the DW seems to me like the machine to get. I like toro, BC, machines as we have rented them along with the dw but I am getting the vid on here that dw may be the way to go??

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I think the dw is probably slightly better. I have owned Toro, bobcat, boxer and vermeer mini skids. And my favorite is the cheapest one. I don't think I could spend 20k on a new one, when you can buy a used toro dingo tx425 with 500 hrs for 6k. You could replace the motor 4 times and it would still be cheaper than a new dw650. Is a 10% performace increase worth the 14k difference? What is roi on that 14k? 5 years?

I m not sure that a simple spec sheet is the best way to compare. the ditch witch is a true stand on machine--no add on pivoting single wheel platform. The ditch witch has much better attachment visibility where the mt 55 from the standing position has almost an entirely blind bucket. 10" higher reach means you can load more into a vehicle and 100#'s more lift capacity. After using both I m fairly confident in a digging, grading, material movement job I would finish in half the time. Bottom line there is more than just the spec sheet.

You can't go wrong with a mini skid purchase of any variety. To get on here and say that one machine will double the output of a competing machine is uninformed at worst and ridiculous at best!

We run an MT55 and it's a beast. I ran the Toro's, the Ditch Witch offerings, the Vermeers and the Boxer (the controls were terrible!). I could have made a ton of money with any of them. We ended up with the Bobcat because I found a heck of a deal.

If you're looking at a machine in the 10k range vs. a machine in the upper 20k range that may have a slightly better specs...you're dreaming if you actually think you're going to see that money come back to you in the form of greater profitability. I'd venture to say that there are less than 5 contractors who visit this site that could tell you, based on actual cost analysis, what the cost breakdown on a specific machine is.

With small equipment there are just to many variables. Sure one machine may dig a little better with a good operator, but put a new guy on it and all the productivity you gained with the good op just went down the drain. Go with solid equipment that will make you money across the spectrum and don't get stuck with Dodge vs. Chevy debates.

It's late....clearly my opinion went into overdrive. Take my thoughts with a grain of salt...or two!